I Promise | The Maze Runner

Chapter 13: Escaping WICKED...Again ✔️

"Good plan, Thomas. Just hear what the man has to say. Really working out for us."

"Shut up, Minho." Thomas retorts, glancing towards Minho who is hanging next to him by their ankles. "Maybe I can reach the rope?!" Thomas suggests, reaching up to try and untie the rope holding him.

"If you untie you'll fall into the pit of cranks under us." I deadpan.  "And you'll most likely die."

"Enjoying the view?" We all look over as Jorge walks in, carrying a cane.

"What do you want?" Thomas asks, bitterly. 

"That is the question." Jorge says as if he's playing with us. "My men want to sell you back to WICKED. Life has taught them to thing small. I'm not like that. Something tells me that you're not either." Jorge says, pointing his cane at Thomas.

"Is the blood rushing to my head or is this shank not making sense?" Minho asks.

"Tell me what you know about the Right Arm." Jorge asks, simply, looking back at Thomas.

"I thought you said they were ghosts." Newt speaks up.

"I happen to believe in ghosts." Jorge says, looking at Newt. "Especially when I hear them chattering among the airwaves." He says, looking back towards Thomas. Well, that explains what he was doing with the radio. He walks over to the lever to lower the rope. He puts his hand on the lever. "You tell me what you know and...maybe we can make a deal."

"We don't know much." Thomas says. Jorge pushes the lever, lowering the rope suddenly. We all yell.

"They're hiding in the mountains!" Thomas yells. "They're hiding in the mountains! They attacked WICKED and got a few kids out, that's all we know! I promise, that's all we know!"

"Hey, Jorge? What's going on here?" We look over as another man walks in, looking at Jorge suspiciously. 

"Me and my new friends are just getting acquainted." Jorge says, looking from the man back to Thomas. "We're done now."

"Whoa, whoa, wait, you're not going to help us?" Thomas asks.

"Don't worry, hermano. We'll get you back to where you belong." Jorge says with a smirk before walking away. The new man looks at us before following Jorge.

We all look at each other, trying to figure out how to get out of our situation. In the end, Teresa swings to Minho who pushes her towards the lever. She grabs onto a pole next to the lever and pulls herself to the lever, lowering it enough so she can get herself untied. She grabs a pole and hands it to Thomas who she pulls to the edge before helping him untie. Teresa helps Minho as Thomas helps Newt. After Newt gets untied he comes to help me.

"Here, grab this." He says, holding out a pole. I grab it and he pulls me to the edge. I put my hands on the ground to put myself in a handstand as Newt unties my ankles. When he finishes I roll out of the handstand and stand up. "Showoff." He mumbles with a small smile.

"Good evening." Janson's voice echos through the building. The sound of helicopter blades also echo through the building.

All of us look at each other. "Janson! How'd they find us?!" I ask, grabbing my backpack from the floor.

"This is the World In Catastrophe Kill-zone Department." Janson continues. "You are surrounded. You find yourself, in no fault of your own, in possession of WICKED property. Return this to us and we'll consider this just a misunderstanding. Or you can resist and every last one of you will die. It won't be long before the Flash wipes out the rest of you. The hope of a cure lies in your hands. The choice is yours."

All of us rush towards the door, but stop when the man walks towards us, a gun raised. "Listen, we're not trying to cause any trouble, we gotta get outta here." Thomas says, looking at the man.

"Is that so?" He asks, putting a walkie talkie to his mouth. "Janson? I got 'em. Bringing them out now, don't shoot us." He puts the walkie talkie down. "Alright, let's go...I said, let's go!" He yells, stepping forward.

And Thomas, being the idiot that he is, grabs at the gun by pointing it towards the ceiling. It goes off, but doesn't do anything. The man gets pushed back and on the ground. He grunts and gets up, raising the gun again. "You little-!"

He gets cut off by a gunshot. Everybody looks at me with my arm raised and my own gun in hand. I look at them and shake my head as the man falls to the ground. The female is standing in the doorway with her gun up.

"Come on, let's go!" She yells, stepping backward. "We gotta go, now!" The urgency in her voice convinces Thomas and he starts running after her.

We run through the, now empty, factory after the female. We look around as music starts playing through speakers around the building. She leads us up a staircase where we meet Jorge waiting. 

"Brenda!" Jorge yells seeing her. I guess that's her name. "We don't have much time! Let's go, let's go, let's go!" He yells, leading us to a set of doors. "Right this way." He says, pushing the doors open.

"You've got to be kidding me." Fry mumbles in disbelief. I look through the doors to see a thick wire connecting to another building.

"Plan B, hermanos. You kids wanna get to the Right Arm? I can lead you to them, but you're going to owe me." Jorge says before reaching up and grabbing a rope that's attached to the wire before pulling it down. "Follow me!" He yells as he runs out the window.

We all watch as he travels down the zip line. "Alright!" Brenda yells, pulling another rope down. "Let's go! Come on!"

Fry and Minho each grab a rope and run out the window. Jesse and Evan go next. Newt and I go. Aris and Teresa follow.

"Where's Brenda?!" Jorge asks Teresa when she gets across.

"She went to get something, Thomas followed her!" Teresa explains. We look back as WICKED guard look out the window.

"Come on, we have to go. Brenda knows how to handle herself!" Jorge yells, pushing us out of the way. He leads us to a small truck. "Get in!"